21 January 2005, 23:45
Beslan residents continue their picket
Beslan residents who suffered in the terror attack have been picketing the Kavkaz federal rout for the second day. "Our children lie in graves, and we'll lie here until Dzasokhov (president of North Osetia - editor's note) goes away," picketers said to a Caucasian Knot correspondent. About 300 people taking part in the rally erected tents on the road, they are burning campfires. Policemen and FSB (Federal Security Service) officers are on duty at the scene.
"Dzasokhov came at 6 a.m., but he said he wouldn't resign," Emma Khadikova, one of the picketers, said. "He said: "Those weren't you who elected me. Can you imagine what would have happened if I'd entered the school then. They'd have killed me, it's a matter of three minutes."
On January 20, the North Osetian Human Rights Commission delivered food and an ambulance to the picketers. "People are in despair. It's their prayer for help," Vitaly Kudzayev, an expert of the commission, said.
The demand to conduct an international investigation of the terror attack in Beslan is heard more and more often at the picket. "We're going to write a form of address to Putin. But we won't content ourselves with it," Emma Khadikova explained.
It was reported earlier that residents of the North Osetian town of Beslan, who suffered in the terror attack, blocked off the Kavkaz federal route at the turn to the Vladikavkaz airport. "We won't go away from here until our demands are met," a picketer announced in the evening on January 20.
Relatives of the victims claim that investigators "understate the number of terrorists" and that "four children have not been found so far".